News Details

McCann: New school funding legislation shows best results

6/22/2017

According toState Senator Sam McCann (R-Plainview), data from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) shows that a new school funding proposal provides more money for all schools through a more equitable system than previous legislation.

“We all agree the formula is broken and that we need to change it, and make sure funding is focused where it is needed most,” said Senator McCann. “The data shows that this legislation is the most equitable system we have seen so far.”

Senate Bill 1124 Amendment 3 was filed as a compromise with other plans, in the hopes of creating a consensus plan to move forward. The legislation is very similar to Senate Bill 1, which recently passed the General Assembly. Both bills use the same evidence-based model to determine the needs of each individual school, they both agree on how to drive funding to low income students, and they rely on the same methodology for determining the difference in costs between different parts of the state.

The ISBE data shows that Senate Bill 1124, however, would offer more funding to every school district.

Both bills use the same system to determine the base funding minimum or hold harmless for each school district, with one key difference. In the case of Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Senate Bill 1 adds hundreds of millions of dollars to the base funding for CPS, while Senate Bill 1124 is consistent between all districts. Because 1124 doesn’t offer costly special deals to just one district, there is more money to go through the evidence-based model to be distributed to the schools that need it most.

“We all understand that Chicago has its own challenges, but we can’t take money from every other school district to do that,” said Senator McCann. “1124 creates a single fair and equitable way to help all schools.”

Senator McCann noted that he has helped advance several bipartisan school funding proposals in the past as a way of moving the conversation forward.

"This process has gone on too long, our students deserve real action right now,” said Senator McCann. “I am hopeful that this legislation can be taken up during the special legislative session that is now underway."